The Winter Soldier's Mirage
by Cassie's Bedlam
Summary: He had earned the name Winter Soldier, his partner earned the name Mirage. She had been a thief, a woman with loose if any morals, that could ensnare the mind with illusions. He had been a soldier, a honest and good man that fought for his country, now a ruthless killer. Hydra had taken everything away from the Soldier expect for her. Hydra kept her leashed with him.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: This was a challenge given to me by AwarenaTenshi. This challenge is about an OC Hydra Experiment.**

* * *

Agony wrecked across his body as he slowly regained consciousness, most of it seemed to be coming from his right arm. He groaned deeply as the pain flared worse now he was awake.

"I did not think you would wake so quickly." A slightly husky feminine voice made him push through his pain and open his eyes.

A gritty white ceiling stared back at Bucky with a flickering single light bulb. He tried to push himself up with his arms only to cry out in pain when he attempted to move his right. He tilted his head to see what was wrong with his arm and stared in horror at what was there instead.

"What the fuck did you do to me?" Bucky spat out in horror to the voice of the woman he couldn't see.

"I've only wiped the blood from your handsome face." The woman attempted to reassure him in a sarcastic manner, he didn't believe her for a second.

"Then what's is this thing?" He asked heatedly as he tried to twist so he could see her.

Firm and slender hands helped him up despite him spitting curses at her and trying to twist away from her hands. Her hands were strong and unyielding as she helped prop him up against the wall, skipping out of his reach when he tried to swipe at her, and letting Bucky see her for the first time.

Tangled dark golden hair fell around her honey-toned face, framing her high cheek-bones, arched eyebrows, amber coloured eyes and full lips. She was tall, and dressed in a formless woolly grey dress.

She raised her slender hands in a peaceful motion.

"I am prisoner." She told him easily, full lips quirking up in dark amusement. "You cannot possible believe they would let me near tools to make something like that." She nodded to the gleaming silver arm that was where his right arm should be and attached firmly to his shoulder.

He glared at her in suspicion for a few more moments before relenting that she was most likely telling the truth.

"Where are we?" He asked as he looked around the room they were in.

Gritty white walls, a single metal door that was most likely bolted firmly, an open arch let one see into a small, gritty and basic bathroom, and two cots were placed at either side of the room with thick blankets and thin mattresses.

"Soviet." She answered as she dropped onto her own cot, swing bare feet under her. "I'm Dominika, what's your name Comrade?"

"Bucky." He answered before narrowing his eyes at her. "You don't sound Soviet."

It wasn't exactly true, but wasn't a lie either. She dropped parts of her sentences and her 'w' sounded more like 'v', but it didn't scream soviet. He had heard some German Hydra agents speak much like she did, it was the comrade that gave her away.

She gave a small pleased smile and nodded her head; "I try my best."

Bucky snorted in dulled amusement. At least his fellow prisoner was entraining.

"You Americans have strange names." Dominika commented when another pained grimace contorted his face. "Who names their son Bucky?"

"It's a nickname." He gritted out as his left hand gripped his new right arm.

His right arm was gone, and yet pain still burnt where it should be and where the new metal arm was.

"Nickname?" Confusion thickened her voice as she tilted her head.

"A name my friends call me." He explained as he rolled his left shoulder.

What the hell happened to him? How did he ended up in the Soviet?

"And you want me to call you that?" Dominika asked in slight shock, distracting him away from most of his pain again.

"Why not?" He asked with sardonic amused smirk. "It looks like we're going to be together for a long time."

"Then call me Nika." The newly dubbed Nika bid him.

They were silent for a small spell of time, Nika letting Bucky get used to the pain his body was in before he pierced her with his blue-green gaze.

"What happened to me?" Bucky asked confused and trepidation in his tone.

Nika gave him a slight bewildered but mostly concerned look.

"They say you fell off train." Nika told him almost cautiously as she regarded him with almost wary dark amber eyes, her soviet accent bleeding through. "That is how you lost arm."

The disorientated feeling of someone punching him in the head took over him as memories slammed into the front of his mind with force.

The train on the mountain. Steve. Hydra. Steve reaching out for his hand. Metal snapping. Steve's face twisting in pain and shock as he reached out uselessly. Falling through air, screaming like he had never screamed before, the sickening snap of his right arm hitting the mountain, breath leaving his lungs as he slammed onto the tightly packed snow, agony dulling his senses before blackness took over, voices calling in a foreign language, rough hands dragging him, people crowding around him, prodding and poking him and then finally a voice and damning words;

'_Sergeant Barnes, you will be Hydra's new fist!'_

"Hydra has us." He almost whisper as shock and fear began to numb his aching body.

Nika's face harden, her eyes shadowed though a glint of sympathy was hidden in their depth.

"Da." She agreed, soviet accent thickening with her emotions.

"They're going to use us as weapons." He stated as he stared at her numbly.

She didn't flinch at those damning words, just nodding her head in agreement.

"Why did they take you?" He asked her and she smiled grimly back at him.

She flickered, like a mirage, and became an exact copy as him—down to the silver arm and scar on the side of his head from his first time in the care of Hydra.

"They say I am miracle." Nika told him in his voice which freaked him out before his image melted back into her own, the look on her face told Bucky she didn't believe that for a moment and wished dearly that she wasn't a so-called miracle.

"How did you do that?" Bucky gaped.

"I make people see things that are not real." She told him almost haughtily as she tossed her tangled hair over her shoulder. "Served me well before."

"Illusions." He named the ability and she nodded in agreement. "How long have you been here?"

"Year or two maybe." Nika rolled her slender shoulders in a shrug in an almost careless manner.

But Bucky wasn't fooled, he could see the relief lightening her eyes as she looked at him. Relief that she wasn't alone any more, and truthfully he couldn't blame her. He would have gone mad if he had been in Hydra's tender care for a year or two alone, and would be happy for some type of companionship after being alone so long.

* * *

Nika had been a thief long before she had become a prisoner. Morals had meant little to her for a long time. She had been a thief trying to make her way through Europe long before Germany invaded in '41, she hadn't believed that the Nazis would keep their alliance when the Soviet joined them in '39 and wasn't surprised to hear about their invasion in '41.

She had been making her way through Europe, stealing to make money and to get food, and had been using her powers to do it. She had been good, her marks never seeing her true face or gender and sometimes nothing at all because of her illusion, and thought she could make it out of the war in one piece.

She had gotten arrogant, and it cost her freedom in '43 when a Hydra agent had witnessed her use her power to pickpocket.

Miracle, they called her when they had captured her—she didn't go down without a fight, she ended up placing one of the agents into a coma because of her illusions.

At first they wanted to understand her power, they tested her and how powerful her illusions were. They had taken the results at face-value, certain that no one would keep secrets under their care. Nika had been a thief though, she had to be cunning and secretive to have survived as long as she had, and knew the importance of keeping her true power under-wrap.

She didn't really know the full extent of her power, she had never explored it a lot. Just used it to trick peoples' eyes, and later their other senses. She was sure that wasn't the extent to her power, or at least she hoped so.

Then they tried to recreate her powers and that failed they wanted to control her and her powers, they failed and the experiments made her burn in pain.

Some of the scars she knew would never leave her skin.

She had quickly figured out a way to survive this madness, she offered her illusion services to the Hydra that watched over her and thus became the torturer of the other prisoners. They treated her better after that—warmer clothes that didn't scratch at her skin, warmer blankets, better and more food and even some hot water when she showered.

She never physically touched them, she just made them believe they were being tortured, but she knew that wasn't much better. But one of her mottos was 'better them then me', so she never truly felt bad for what she did.

She had never thought of herself as a good person, she was practical so she could and would survive.

But looking into the American's—Bucky's—eyes made her feel remorse for all the things she had done. Even if she had only done them to survive.

He had honest eyes, good eyes, and she knew Hydra would ruin him and those eyes. Poor soldier-boy. Poor soldat-mal'chik.

Sympathy was a stranger she wasn't used to meeting, but when it came to this man. This man brought out a side the twenty-four-year-old had thought she had long buried.


	2. Chapter 2

Bucky didn't accept his new lot in life, Nika despaired as she dabbed the bloody weeping wounds on his face.

He had fought against the guards when they came to take him for his first round of experiments. They had beat him down brutally, he hadn't been able to fight back much as his body was still healing.

"Why?" She asked.

She did not understand why he had decided to fight against them when he was so weak and outnumbered.

"Because Steve Rodgers never gave up before." He wheezed a pained breath. "He's my best friend and has taught me well."

His eyes weren't focused in the here and now, he was in his memories. Memories of Steve Rodgers.

"He was always the weakest." He told her almost fondly. "But he always stood up for himself and others against the bullies despite how many times they beat him down."

"He sounds like fool." Nika dismissed as she gently dapped at the gash above his eyebrow.

"He was brave." Bucky corrected her with a blood-stained smile. "How can I not do the same as he did?"

Nika didn't like the fool Steve Rodgers. He was the person that Bucky would continue to fight for, the person he would be beat for, and most likely be the person that he died for. Steve Rodgers was going to be the death of his best friend.

"You will die like fool." She told him grimly and seriously.

Because he was going to get himself killed.

* * *

He continued to fight them and they tortured him in return. They hadn't order Nika to torture him, which Nika was thankful for and hated, because they actually tortured him. They had to drag him back to their cell each night and drop him roughly on his cot.

Nika continued to clean and nurse his wounds—wounds that stopped bleeding and healed faster after each experiment.

Nika heard whispers of super-soldier serum, Captain America and how Barnes was going to be their own version—their own weapon.

She also heard doubtful whispers, how the serum never worked properly on other subjects, how the serum killed some of them and how Barnes was going to join them.

And she heard the revengeful and angry mutterings. Sergeant Barnes had killed many of Hydra, and some were friends with the fallen in his division of Hydra and wanted revenge.

When she was out of her cell, she would look for them and when she found them, she would trick them with her illusions and they killed each other, always thinking the other was Bucky.

The other Hydra knew what happened and why, and she was punished—not as harshly as other prisoners would have been, but she was still punished.

She had to be carried back to her room, burn circles from the electric shock on either temple. Her mind had been a jumble, her body twitched and was out of her control. For once Bucky had to take care of her.

He didn't fight them for the week it took her to recover from her first part of her punishment.

The second part was breaking one of her legs in two places. Bucky had to set the bones right and ripped apart from his cot for splints and bandages to keep her left leg straight.

She had screamed and bit through his shoulder when he had, coppery thick liquid had filled her mouth and slid down her throat hotly. Bucky had barely winced as he continued setting her leg and wrapping it tightly with scraps of cloth and bolts of metal.

They shared her cot that night and Hydra didn't give them a new one, and they didn't expect them too.

It had been a painful night as they tried to lay in a way that both had room and didn't harm her leg more, which seemed impossible to do.

When her leg finally healed, she walked with a limp.

They started experimenting the serum on her to see if it would make her power stronger. It did though she didn't let on how much. She refused to let them know how powerful they were making her as she was planning to escape. Nothing truly held her to Hydra as the war was over.

* * *

One day when they dragged Bucky back to their cell, she knew something was wrong with how lax he was in their arms.

He had felt her concerned stare, and he had rolled his head back and stared at her with unfocused blue-green eyes.

The fire in his eyes were gone. The fire that burnt brightly whenever he spoke of the fool, the fire sparked by that fool and it was gone. It was replaced by growing ice.

They had ruined his eyes like she knew they would.

Something in her screamed.

She hadn't realised how much she had come to care for him, hadn't realised the affection that she held him in. Nika had been alone all her life, and had never had someone she loved or even cared about until that moment.

She had never had to deal with someone she cared for being harmed as she had only ever cared for herself in the past. She had never had to deal with the fury that would boil blood when someone you loved was harmed and thus hadn't been able to control her lashing emotions—and truthfully she didn't know if she could have, she would have.

A red tint took over her gaze and it seemed like she had passed out.

When she next came aware of herself, her soldier was cradled on her lap. Her fingers were brushing around the burns that matched hers on his temples, warm tears slipped from amber eyes as almost completely blank blue-green eyes stared up at her.

The guards were lifeless on the floor, blood weeping down their faces from their ears, eyes and mouth.

Shouts echoed as other guards realised what had happened.

Rough hands jerked her away from her soldier, making her cry out.

"No!"

His voice sounded broken as his hand reached desperately for her and she reached out for him, ignorant to the cries of pain of the guard that had grabbed her as her illusion worked its magic.

A blow to her head stole her consciousness and removed her hold on the guards.

* * *

She woke to metal fingers running through her hair. They were familiar so she stayed relaxed as she woke, amber staring up into blue-green.

"Who are you?" The confusion in his voice was true, half-remembered fondness was in his eyes.

Her throat closed tightly.

They had taken his memories. They took his memories. Everything that made him who he was. No wonder his fire was gone. The fool—Steve Rodgers—was gone from his memories. She was gone too, all the times she had cleaned him up after a beating, all the time they spent telling stories when they couldn't sleep on their cot and it was all gone.

"Nika, Comrade." She told him again, slender honey-hand reaching up for his calloused real one.

"My name is... Comrade?" The confusion was painful.

"Net, no." She repeated when she realised that he wouldn't remember the Russian she had taught him. "No."

She couldn't tell him his name, they had taken all his memories and she didn't want to think what they would do if they thought he remembered his name.

"Soldier." She told him. "My soldier."

He was her soldier. Her soldier-boy. Her soldat-mal'chik. She wouldn't loss him anymore than she had already.

"And then you're my Nika?" He questioned innocently.

"Dat." She pressed a fond kiss to his callous palm. "Yes, always."

It was a promise of a life-time.


	3. Chapter 3

Baron Strucker stared straight into Nika's amber eyes with his cruel cold coal black ones.

"Our first miracle has gained a weakness." He mocked before he began circling her. "A love-interest in our little American weapon, perhaps?"

Nika knew better than to speak out, she kept her silence and watched him steadily.

She saw the strike coming and did nothing but brace herself. It was a hard smack that made her cut her cheek with her teeth.

She spat her blood on the floor though she wished she could spit into his face.

"The ice-mirage has a heart after all. I did not think that was possible." He mused as he considered the tall woman in front of him. "If you try to betray Hydra, we'll kill him in front of you. If you try to run from Hydra, we'll hunt you down and kill him in front of you. Do you understand?"

"Dat." She spoke only once, a sound of understanding, and watched as a cruel smile twisted his lips.

"You will be going to America." He informed her as he turned his back on her, striding to his desk and peering down at the papers that littered it. "Dr Zola will continue with your experiments."

Ice stabbed her heart, Hydra was in America?

"You will do as you're told, for your lover's sake as well as your own."

* * *

The ocean was calm, a deep blue-green like her Soldier's eyes, and showed no sign of the battles that had been fought on it. No sign of the war that raged across the world and killed thousands—if one just looked at the sea then they wouldn't believe that the world had been trying to rip itself apart early this year.

Nika stared at the sea, her arm linked with her Soldier's metal one as they stood at the rail, as the ship swayed under their feet.

No one gave them a second glance, her illusions kept them looking like a normal couple heading for freedom in the America.

It was an illusion of the highest degree as there was no such thing a freedom. Not for her anymore, not when Hydra could so easily end her soldier's life. And Hydra held her soldier tightly.

They weren't lovers, not yet. Nika wasn't stupid and could see what was ahead them. They were the only constants in each other life, the only one they trusted and the only one they cared about.

She glanced around her, at the people that surrounded them, and could see the Hydra watching.

Cut off one head, and two more will grow. Cut off two, and four more will grow.

She closed her eyes and lent her head onto his metal shoulder, feeling his concerned gaze focusing on her.

Everyone thought the War had ended. It hadn't though, and it never would as long as Hydra lived. And they would never been free.

"Nika?" The concern in his voice was unmistakeable.

She glanced up and gave him a small smile—fake though it was—and his face remained unconvinced so she pressed a kiss to his lips to distract him and herself from her worries and his concern. Both relaxed as he wrapped his arms around her slender waist—their first kiss.

It wasn't a rushed kiss filled with passionate emotions, it wasn't a loving kiss—they didn't love each other, not yet—but it was a soft one, a distraction from everything, and it suited them.

Hydra wouldn't be able to hold them forever, one day Nika would escape with her soldier. It was another promise she would keep, for him and only for him. One day a sign would come that it was time, and she wouldn't look back as she took her soldier and ran.

It didn't matter if they had to run forever as long as they were together, out of Hydra's reach, and almost free.

Her soldier, her American, was making her soft.

* * *

Nika felt her lips curl in disgust as the pathetic human-being that was Zola inspected her soldier like he was an animal.

"Remarkable." He muttered to himself as he circled the tall and solid frame of Sergeant Barnes—not as tall or solid as his friend, Captain America, though.

There wasn't even a flicker of recognition in his blue-green eyes when the Sergeant first saw him. His memories were fully gone then, that was good. He didn't fancy having a metal hand try and succeed to crush his throat.

"What's his name?" He asked, glancing at the woman that was watching him with cold amber eyes.

"Soldier." She told him, lips pressed together tightly as she glared at him.

Simple and unimaginative, but it would work. Couldn't let the Sergeant remember anything, and if they kept calling him by his name than that could be the case.

Zola glanced back at the Russian woman in interest and caution.

He had heard about Dominika—the first miracle—and knew of the affection the cold Russian held the Sergeant in. It was strange, he didn't think the Russian could care about anyone apart from herself, and yet the protective way she stood as she watched him with wary flinty amber as he stood before the Sergeant told him that it was true.

The woman had a weakness. A weakness that would keep her tied to Hydra. But it was also a weakness that made her dangerous.

He had heard about what happened when the Sergeant was brought back after they successfully removed his memories. She had killed two agents in her rage over his state.

Zola would have to be careful with the Sergeant, he didn't want to see or experience the horror that had killed two men because of Dominika's rage.

As he had shown earlier in the war, he did not want to die.

* * *

In America, her Soldier wasn't just being experiment on as he was also getting trained.

His body remembered his army training so that helped him in the long run when it came to combat, most of his training was getting used to his new and growing strength.

Nika was also getting training, though she had no previous training to help her. Nika's experience in fighting were fast, brutal and dirty fighting in back-alleys with knives over food, money and such.

Thus she was beaten badly, despite the serum now running through her veins, and it was her turn to be dragged/carried back to their shared room.

Her Soldier hadn't been pleased when she came back to their room one day with her face all cut up. He found the agent that beat her that badly and killed him in the ring during the training—after that it was left to Soldier to train her.

It was rather sweet what he had done to avenge her.

After that, their sleeping together took a whole different—and more pleasurable—meaning.

Nika knew her Soldier was making her soft and melting her cold heart when she felt completely safe held in his arms—one flesh and one metal—afterwards and mused that she didn't want to be anywhere else, or with anyone else.


	4. Chapter 4

Nika loved their free time when they were in their cell and locked away from the world, from Hydra, and could relax together.

The division in America gave them things to keep their minds occupied with so they didn't go mad when their bodies were recovering from the experiments and training sessions.

Her soldier liked to draw and she loved to watch him. A flare of fire would brighten his blue-green eyes as his face drew into an intense look as his hand flew gracefully over the white sheet—it was a brief glimpse to Bucky and Nika cherished each glimpse.

He began to plaster the walls with his sketches; sketches of her, of him, of places he asked her describe, of them together and of the sky.

(Sometimes Nika would find sketches of a man—sometimes a scrawny little man, sometimes a tall and strong man—that had fierce fiery eyes that pierced out at you and she realised it was the fool. She would always tuck those sketches away from the sight of nosy scientists, Soldier never asked where they went which she was glad for. Sometimes Nika wondered if he remembered drawing the fool at all, he would always fall asleep after he finished putting the fool's face to paper and never asked about it after he woke up.)

Nika didn't have a hobby like that, money had always been better spent on food or board than on whimsy things like hobbies, but she did enjoy flinching a good book every now again. So she spent her time stumbling through books writing in English and other languages, she could speak them well enough but hadn't bothered to really learn how to read it until then.

It was nice, an illusion of how their life could be like without Hydra, and strength her promise.

* * *

Soldier may have been Nika's weakness, but Nika was Soldier's weakness.

Hydra knew that and they kept that in mind when they send the couple on their first mission in '46.

They implanted a tracker into Nika that would release a poison if they tried to escape. They told Soldier exactly what painful death awaited Nika if the couple didn't do what they were ordered.

Nika hated the way fear hardened his eyes when he looked at her, but she couldn't blame him.

Their first mission was meant to be simple, a single and simple kill, and that part of it was simple. It was getting back to Hydra that was the hard part.

Zola's tracker began to prematurely leak poison into her blood-stream, and she hadn't been aware of it at first and when she began to get suspicious, she didn't tell her Soldier.

So she tried to act normally when her vision began to double and her head began to spin. She couldn't act normally when she collapsed in a faint, her limbs numb and her breathing quick.

* * *

She woke up a month later to the sound of beeping machines and two hands—one made of metal, one made of flesh—gripping her right hand.

Her body was horribly weak and heavy, her head felt like it had been stuffed with cotton and the white glare from the ceiling and lights hurt her eyes.

"Lyubov?" She questioned in a croak, her throat hurting.

Her lover's head popped up at the sound of her voice, face worn and tired in a way that she had never seen it.

"Nika." The relief that filled her name was over-powering as it left his lips.

She watched in growing alarm as tears seemed to shine in his eyes before he was burying his face into her side, broad shoulders shaking with every gasp of breath as he kept hold of her hand like a dying man would.

"Lyubov?" She asked again before switching to English. "Love?"

His head lifted up, face twisted in pain and relief as he looked at her before pressing kisses to her face.

"You're okay, you're okay, you're okay." Those words seemed to be mantra between kisses.

She realised as his warm tears hit her face how close she had come to dying, and if there wasn't love between them before, it was there now. Death had a habit of bringing people together whether it was because of a loved one died or when someone was close to dying, it evoked and brought to life fierce feelings like rage, grief, hate and love.

"I'm okay." She repeated as she gently pulled her hands from his and cupping his face, pressing kisses back as she repeated her words.

* * *

It would be '49 that Hydra would decide to freeze both Soldier and Mirage—as she had earned the nickname—between missions as it was easier to keep them hidden from S.H.I.E.L.D.

The first time they went under was frightening for both of them, the cold reminded Soldier of have remembered freezing fear while Mirage hated the thought of letting Hydra have that type of control over them.

The first time they woke up was almost as frightening. It was '58 and things had changed so much in a short amount of time. It was startling and they clung tighter to each other as they moved through the world as they did their missions.

Each time they went under and woke up in a different time was easier, they got used to a world that changed in a single sleep and only having the other as the only constant they had.

Soldier became fiercer and ruthless on the missions, his eyes getting ever colder, while Mirage's illusions became more cruel and cunning, and her amber eyes as hard as the precious stones that they resembled so greatly.

Hydra held them tightly, using all sorts of methods to ensure their loyalty to Hydra—none of it worked, their loyalty was only to each other.

'82 was the year that they finally decided Mirage didn't need to fitting with a poisonous tracker when out on missions, which they were thankful for. They didn't try to run, Mirage knew it wasn't time yet.

* * *

2001 is the year that Natasha Romanoff comes face to face with the Winter Soldier and his partner Mirage.

She would always remember dropping the dead scientist before pressing a hand to the wound on her stomach before peering up.

Blue-green cold eyes stared down at her from between black strands and above the black mask.

She would never admit to the fear that settled deep in her bones as she meet those cold eyes.

The air shimmered next to him like a mirage before a tall and slender woman appeared—dark golden hair was swept up and back in a bun, hard amber eyes stared down at her from the top of the cliff and a mocking smile appeared on her full lips.

"Alright there, Comrade?" She called down to Natasha.

Natasha glared up at her, arm aching as she hung, so this was Mirage. A fellow Russian.

The click of the Soldier's gun's safety coming off made her eyes widen more in her pale face, Mirage's hand on his arm stopped him.

"She's only a kid."

Natasha glared harder up at her, she was almost seventeen and the youngest S.H.I.E.L.D agent, and she was no kid.

Mirage wagged her fingers in a wave before the couple disappeared. Natasha wouldn't be seeing them for another thirteen years.


	5. Chapter 5

Mirage sat up on the metal table and stretched, feeling her bones crack with satisfaction.

Soldier was sitting on his own table and was watching her, a small smile tugging at his lips.

"What year is it this time?" Mirage asked as she slipped her legs off the table.

"2014." The almost pleasant voice of Alexander Pierce informed them.

Amber eyes cut towards the suited man before turning back to Soldier. She had never liked Pierce as she disagreed with his idea of keeping the peace.

"What's our mission?" Soldier asked, his face blank.

That was the only reason they were woken up these days, for Soldier to kill someone and for Mirage to keep a lot of attention off him if it was a public killing or to track the target.

"Nick Fury." Pierce tossed the file on Soldier's table.

Mirage fluidly stood and moved to stand between her Soldier's legs so she could peer at the target's picture.

Dark skin, bald and had only one eye, probably older then he looked and seemed to have a thing for black and leather.

She flicked through the file, pausing briefly on a photo of Pierce with Fury.

So Pierce was sending them after his friends now.

"Reason?" Mirage asked because she was always curious.

"He's suspicious." Pierce said simply. "We can't let him find out about Hydra."

"Hail Hydra." Mirage drawled sarcastically.

Pierce ignored her, she wouldn't do anything as long as her lover followed Hydra, and the Soldier knew nothing but Hydra.

"Mirage, you'll be on stand-by to track him." Pierce ordered. "Soldier, kill him."

"Yes, sir."

"Sure, Comrade."

* * *

Nick Fury was a stubborn son of a bitch, Mirage thought to herself as she watched her Soldier attempt to kill him—again. Fury refused to die, his strength of will was admirable and annoying for her Soldier.

Never before had a single target caused him such hassle, and never before had a target been able to get away from him.

Mirage could see the slight anger in his eyes as he watched her step out of one of the black rovers, the anger was dampened by respect though. Soldier and Mirage would always respect the will of survivors—they were comrades after all.

"My turn now, Soldier?" She asked playfully, Soldier squeezed her side briefly as he gave her a glance of amusement.

"Find him Mirage!" One of the Hydra agents barked out making the skin around Soldier's eyes tighten as he glared at him.

Mirage subtly shook her head at her lover, it wasn't worth him being tortured by the sadists that called themselves doctors just to avenge a slight against her.

Mirage just focused on the golden ribbon illusion only she could see. She had tied it around Fury's wrist and would be able to track him by following it.

She slid easily into the hole that Fury made, and began her hunt.

Her earpiece was the only thing that kept them in touch, and so Soldier didn't over-react in worry and overprotectiveness, she talked to him.

Though her Soldier had long became a man of few words, Mirage knew her lover was comforted by the sound of her voice as it told him she was okay without him.

He half-remembered her punishment at the hands of Hydra when she protected him, remembered clearly the punishment she had been given when she killed those guards when he was dragged back to their room without any memory.

Mirage and Soldier were loyal to each other only, they only trusted the other and both were aware that they would gladly jump ship. But Mirage was waiting for a sign, something that would insure their safety when they broke away from Hydra.

She had been waiting for seven decades, and didn't realise that she would soon be getting her sign and her old soldier back. All because of a Fool.

* * *

The apartment that Nick holed himself up in was boring in its normalness, Mirage thought as she lounged easily on the couch of the apartment without the target any the wiser.

He didn't attempt to do first-aid on himself, just put on a record—and hadn't it been a long time since she last saw one?—before sitting silently in a chair next to the player.

Honestly it was boring, and Soldier could have already dealt with the man since he didn't seem to be moving for a while. But—

Well, Mirage was curious.

Her curiosity had survived her time as a thief and had survived her decades of time under Hydra.

Curiosity had been the driving force when it came to her Soldier in the beginning, before emotions entered their relationship and made her care for him, and he for her.

Her curiosity and patience paid off in the end when a very familiar face entered the apartment through the window.

She had never met the blond talking and watching Fury warily, never seen the blond in real life, but she knew him.

The Fool.

His eyes burnt with blue fire as he read the silent message from Fury that told him that S.H.I.E.L.D had been compromised and her breath caught in her throat.

Perhaps she could understand why her lover had been so loyal to this Fool, the fire in his eyes encouraged others to fight for what was right and all that shit.

She stayed unmoved as Fury was shot fatally by her soldier, watched the Fool run off after him and ignored the agent crouched down over Fury.

She let Fury see her, watching his eye widen at the sight of her with dark amusement.

It was always amusing to see how their faces changed when they realised they hadn't been as alone as they thought.

"You better survive this, Comrade." Mirage told him seriously, amber eyes burning bright in the lack of light. "Your blond Fool will need your assistance bringing down Hydra. And he better do it swiftly, he's got me all hopeful now."

A dark grin that barred her teeth crossed her face.

"I'll be there at the end, and I will help you as long as you leave my soldier and me alone, and keep us away from Hydra. We'll even work for you, maybe, deal Comrade?"

Fury nodded just the slightest bit towards her and her smile became almost gentle.

"I'll make them scream like they once made us." She promised almost sweetly before she pulled her illusion around her firmly again and left the apartment with an extra sway in her hips.

Now all she had to do was wait for the Fool to bring back her Soldier's fire, and then she was all set.

"Hail Hydra." She whispered to herself with dark amusement and almost giddiness. "Hail the burning Hydra. Hail the Fool and his foolish fire. Hail the painful wrath of Mirage. Hail the cold burning fury of the Winter Soldier."

She had always liked the story of Hercules fighting the Hydra. He stopped its heads from growing back with fire, didn't he? She had the Fool's fire and only needed her Soldier's fire to see the Hydra's body thrash without some of its many prized heads.

It would take years for Hydra to be fully taken down, but she had time. And she had the ruthlessness to hunt them all down. She had once been their most feared torturer, she'd enjoy turning that skill on them.


	6. Chapter 6

Soldier knew that Mirage could break them out at any time, knew she desperately wanted too when she gently tended to his wounds that the monsters that called themselves doctors and scientists did to him.

But she didn't, because he wasn't ready and because he didn't know what was out there for them, and all he knew was Hydra.

Mirage stayed with him, stilled her raging power when all she wanted to do was rip apart the minds of Hydra, and loved him.

Soldier hated himself for being so weak, and loved Mirage for being so strong.

* * *

Mirage had been a child of the Soviet, a daughter with a heart as cold as their harshest winter, and a selfish motto—better them than me.

That all changed in '45 when an American was dragged into her room with blue fires for eyes and began to melt the coldness of her heart.

She had never loved someone before, she wasn't a strange to sex as she had never had the modest that others of her generation had but she had never loved the men that she shared a bed with, and they were always marks after all.

But that American with fire for his eyes and a loyal heart to a Fool, she loved him and she stayed for him after they doused the fire in his eyes and they began to get as cold as her heart.

She stayed and she waited, and she planned and plotted, and dreamed of the torture she would bring on to the Hydra's head.

* * *

Mirage hummed to herself as she swung her legs from her seat on the desk as she watched the glazed eyed and blanked face of Alexander Pierce do her bidding.

"I'm going to make you scream, Comrade." She promised as she watched him fill a single file with all of Hydra's crap—S.H.I.E.L.D was too important to destroy. "Before I snap your neck happily."

Pierce didn't even twitch or pause in his typing.

"It's nothing personal." She assured him with a dark grin. "I'm going do the same to all of Hydra's heads before I burn the stumps so no pesky heads will grow back."

"Hydra made a mistake so many years ago in '45. Foolish thinking that the ice-cold Russian wouldn't take to the injured American." She informed him. "Hydra made a mistake by giving me someone I could love and then hurting him. Decades I have waited for this moment."

She stroked Pierce's cheek in a mockingly gentle way.

"You shouldn't have sent my soldier after his best friend." She told him. "The fool will make him remember and I will not let you make him forget again. It's time he took his fire back."

"I must thank you though." She mused. "I would have never gotten such a good grasp on my English without you."

She smirked as he finished before swiping the memory-stick.

Her lover would be back soon, hopefully with some old memories in that head of his.

* * *

Mirage wasn't surprised when Pierce called her to calm her lover. The moment she entered the room, all the agents was captured in her illusion.

They saw only what they wanted and expected to see.

He looked up at with a lost look on his face that made him look like a lost little boy.

"He knew me." He told her as she walked closer. "He called me Bucky. I know him."

She perched on his lap, smiling as his hand automatically settled on her waist and looked into his beautiful blue-green eyes.

"You have fire in your eyes, my love, my Bucky." She told him, lovingly stroking his cheek.

His hands tightened their grip as she confirmed his name.

"You thought it was my real name." Bucky remembered as he rubbed her sides, amber clashing with aquamarine.

"You Americans have strange names." She repeated her old words making him smirk slightly.

"You could have left me behind." He said as he tugged her closer.

"No I couldn't." She disagreed as she pressed a kiss to his lips, smiling as he held her closer.

They broke apart and rested their foreheads against the others.

"I can't kill him."

"I know."

"I have to help him."

"We will."

"I'm sorry."

"I know, your back now and I still love you."

"I love you too."

Mirage and Soldier was no longer, they were Nika and Bucky.

* * *

She waited in Pierce's office, easily making herself at home on the leather chair. She smirked at the Fool's voice drifted through the building, he knew how to recruit people with his passion alone.

She saw the looks that the other council members faces as they stared at Pierce, caught the twitch of movement of the agents in the room and easily dropped them—they fell to buckled knees with choked gasps as they believed they were getting choked to death.

"Mirage." Pierce realised making her let herself become visible to everyone. "What are you doing?"

"'43." She remembered as she made Pierce believe he couldn't move. "I was twenty-three when Hydra took me. I was only going to stay till after the war, Hydra gave me everything I needed to survive and left me alone if I tortured their guests for them.

But then '45 and Sergeant Bucky Barnes came into my life."

She paused as she watched Pierce fall with a scream as she made him think his legs broke underneath him.

"I came to care about the foolish American, came to care about the fire in his honest eyes, and Hydra tried to ruin and did so for many years."

"Why?" Pierce choked out, none of his once friends tried to help him or try to stop her.

"You shouldn't have sent Bucky after his best friend." She chided him. "The Fool inspired great loyalty in him once before, with him just saying his name, memories came back and I did not let you take them from him again."

She fluidly got to her feet and threw the memory stick to the only other female in the room.

"You may want to put everything on that memory-stick online, Comrade." She advised as she calmly walked towards Pierce. "It'll stop you from destroying S.H.I.E.L.D as you land a blow to Hydra."

The woman pulled off both a wig and an electric mask, revealing the little girl that she had stopped Bucky killing years ago. She strode easily to the podium and began to do as advised.

"Mirage." Pierce spoke out as she gripped his hair and pulled him to his knees.

"My name in Dominika." Nika told him firmly. "And you hurt my lover."

She gripped his hair more firmly and with a 'Hail Hydra' snapped his neck.

She watched his body fall easily before glancing at the only other living people in the room.

"Perhaps we should leave, hmm?" She asked. "I believe it's going to get messy as civil wars normally are."


	7. Chapter 7

It was strange knowing that he had destroyed something that most of his friends helped create, but Steve was certain that they wouldn't be angry with him as he was exposing Hydra and doing some damage to it at the same time.

It was surreal to be standing next to his best friend—a best friend he had been sure had died, a best friend he had mourned over and a best friend that had attempted to kill him—as he watched carriers crash into the Washington HQ of SHIELD.

"You never do things by half, do ya Comrade?" The teasing female voice made him tense and both him and Bucky to turn and face the woman behind them.

He hadn't even heard her coming!

Dark golden hair was pulled back out of her face by a tight bun at the base of her neck, amber eyes were amused with full lips tilted up in a smirk as she watched the two men. She wore a black leather top much like Bucky's—only it seemed more like a vest and part of Steve wanted her to put on a jacket as he still wasn't used to women showing that much skin—and leather trousers tucked into heeled boots that only add an inch of height to her already willowy frame.

The belt around her waist had the symbol of Hydra on its belt-buckle and he tensed and held his shield ready as he watched her warily—she seemed to be more amused by that which made him uneasy.

"Nika." Bucky exhaled deeply and captured Steve's attention.

There was no mistaking the deep-relief and affection in Bucky's tone as he said her name, the almost gentle smile that appeared on his lips made him look like the man that Steve had called his best friend.

Bucky reached out with his left hand and 'Nika' didn't hesitated in placing her slender hand into his metal one with an almost loving smile as Bucky tugged her closer to him.

"You're okay," he said in more of attempt of reassuring himself than her.

"Such little faith." Nika teased as one hand reached up to cup his face. "Should I be offended?"

He just chuckled into her hair before releasing her and turning to face Steve.

"Steve, this is Nika." Bucky gestured between them and Steve, almost numbly, reached out to shake her hand.

"So this is the Fool," she mused as she shook his hand firmly.

"Excuse me?" Steve asked in a splutter.

"You're excused," she teased with a lightness in her amber eyes that brightened as Bucky chuckled and wrapped his arm more firmly around her slender waist.

So Steve smiled back at her, feeling that she was part of the reason that Bucky remembered and helped him.

* * *

"No! No! No!" Tony refused, waving his hands around as Bruce idly sipped at his coffee as he watched Steve and the little trio he had brought with him back to New York.

Tony was standing, legs near-vibrating in the need to pace, as he glared at Steve and the trio behind the Capsicle while Bruce was almost completely relaxed on Tony's too-white couch—Clint was slumped in an armchair, having just gotten back from his own mission, and was staring at them with intent-half-lidded eyes while Natasha had barely graced them with a glance before she went straight for Tony's bar and the drinks Pepper hadn't watered down.

"We do not bring home strays!" Tony admonished Steve, his finger waggling like a disapproving parent as Steve rubbed at his pink-tinted neck.

"They're friends, Tony." Steve insisted.

("Are we the stray?" Sam Wilson, according to Steve's introductions, asked the blonde woman next to him. "Am I?"

"Do I look like a stray, Comrade?" The obviously Russian blonde, Nika apparently, asked in a mock-haunting fashion as she leaned further into her silent dark haired parent that was watching Tony with wary aquamarine eyes and a tight metal arm wrapped around the woman's slender waist. "You may be though."

The two traded smirks that only had a slightly strain to them—obviously they were slowly becoming friends.)

"He tried to kill you!" Tony accused as he carelessly pointed at the dark haired man, apparently the-not-so-dead Bucky Barnes, who frowned at the finger that was ridiculously close to his face.

Bruce had the idle wondering thought that it looked like Bucky was considering biting it—by the amused amber eyes that cut to Bucky's face and then his, Bruce was certain he was right.

"He's my best friend!" Steve argued back with a frown and a glare as he loomed over the shorter male.

"And Rock-of-Ages was Thor's brother, doesn't mean we were going to let him live with us." Tony shot back.

("Rock-of-Ages?" Nika looked questioningly at Sam, who in turn shrugged.

"I have no damn idea," he shook his head.)

"Bucky's just had a bit of bad luck with Hydra." Steve said almost lamely making Clint snort a little as Tony paused to briefly look at Steve like he hadn't realised how exactly dim Steve was compared to him—Bruce had come very good at reading Tony's expressions.

"It's my Tower." Tony argued with a smug look on his face. "I say we don't take in strays."

"I've already talked to Miss Potts." It was Steve's turn to look smug as Tony's shoulders dropped. "She already said yes."

"I should have never given her half." Tony mumbled to himself as he left the room, most likely to sulk in his lab as he listened to his loud music and made something that they would probably have to destroy before it took over the world.

"Does this mean we get to stay?" Sam asked making Steve nod.

The dark-skinned man just grinned and easily took a seat next to Bruce.

Nika pressed herself close to Bucky's side, whispering something into his ear. Bruce didn't know what she said to put such a smirk on Bucky's face, and didn't bother to watch as they both disappeared down the hall that lead to the bedrooms as Natasha sat on the armrest next to him.

Life at Avengers' Tower—as Tony was insisting it was called now—was going to get more interesting.


End file.
